Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Juan Hernandez' Tribute to James Royse (In Search for a PhD. Project and Method)

Following up on yesterday's post on the SBL book review of Royse's monograph, Juan Hernandez contacted me and offered his full presentation to our readers. It may be particularly helpful for PhD. students in search for a project and method to learn more about Hernandez' struggle in this regard, before he found his "exemplar" in James Royse. Those same students may also want to read our post, "Where to do PhD".

Below is the introduction of Hernandez' presentation. If you want to read the whole paper you may request it from tomwas[at]spray[dot]se. In the future we may make this available on our related website (which has been "under construction" for the last years).

INTRODUCTIONIt is an incredible privilege for me to be here tonight to honor Dr. James R. Royse and to offer a few reflections on what his work has meant to me. I will leave it to others on this panel and to history to confirm what I already know to be true: that this is a work of singular importance—extraordinary for its immense learning, comprehensive scope and painstaking detail. But perhaps more importantly, Royse’s work is an exemplar for all who aspire to do justice to the study of scribal habits. (Of course, the conclusions are also groundbreaking). I, on the other hand, hope to offer a glimpse of how one book made a difference to the scholarly trajectory and pursuits of a fledgling Ph.D. student, who was—essentially—at his wits end as to what to “write on.” I think it’s safe to say, that if it were not for Royse’s Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri, that my own academic interests, endeavors, and development over the course of the last few years would have been far different.